

You will be assigned a unique IP address by your router so that you can connect to the internet. To initiate a connection with a router, your device will send out its MAC address as soon as it detects one.

Your laptop’s Wi-Fi adapter, for example, and many other network devices and interfaces, have MAC (or “media access control”) addresses associated with them.Īs a result of the fact that MAC addresses are assigned by manufacturers and embedded into the device’s network interface card, they are permanently attached to the device, which means they cannot be changed.Ī MAC address is critical for a device to communicate with other local network devices to function correctly.

MAC addresses are unique alphanumeric identifiers used as hardware identifiers to identify a device connected to the internet.
